The Teddy Bears Night Before Christmas

Photographs of the Kissenbear Family of teddy bears illustrate the well-known poem about an important Christmas visitor.

The Teddy Bears prepare for Christmas and enjoy a recitation of "The night before Christmas."

"T'was the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring-not even a mouse." This timeless poem is so well known to children and so often recited by adults it is virtually a part of our common heritage. Written on Christmas Eve in 1822-in a horse-drawn sleigh with jingling bells according to legend-it evokes the excitement and good cheer of Christmas Eve like no other work of American literature. Paired with Thomas Nast's drawings of St. Nicholas, from which we derive the classic image of Santa Claus, this lovely edition may well become the quintessential American Christmas book for children of all ages.

The timeless Christmas poem comes to life as never before with lushly staged, dazzling photographs of the Kissenbear Family. Full color.

The day before Christmas, snuggled on his floor, Bear sleeps soundly with a great big snore. "Dear Bear. Get up!" Mouse shouts in his ear. "We won't let you sleep through Christmas this year." Bear's friends are determined that he'sawake for Christmas and they get him up from his hibernation on Christmas Eve. Bear is excited to experience the holiday with his friends and tries very hard to stay awake, helping to find the right Christmas tree, making mint tea and singing carols. Finally, though, it's his friends who have fallen asleep - and Bear Stays Up! He makes food and presents for his friends, not noticing that Father Christmas has also come to visit. Christmas morning dawns bright and happy for all!

Scratch and sniff the pine tree, the wood fire, the peppermint candies, and more, to experience this classic poem in a whole new way.

Whether used for thematic story times, program and curriculum planning, readers' advisory, or collection development, this updated edition of the well-known companion makes finding the right picture books for your library a breeze. Generations of savvy librarians and educators have relied on this detailed subject guide to children's picture books for all aspects of children's services, and this new edition does not disappoint. Covering more than 18,000 books published through 2017, it empowers users to identify current and classic titles on topics ranging from apples to zebras. Organized simply, with a subject guide that categorizes subjects by theme and topic and subject headings arranged alphabetically, this reference applies more than 1,200 intuitive (as opposed to formal catalog) subject terms to children's picture books, making it both a comprehensive and user-friendly resource that is accessible to parents and teachers as well as librarians. It can be used to identify titles to fill in gaps in library collections, to find books on particular topics for young readers, to help teachers locate titles to support lessons, or to design thematic programs and story times. Title and illustrator indexes, in addition to a bibliographic guide arranged alphabetically by author name, further extend access to titles.

Poke the dots to count down to Christmas.